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Back to To the Point

To the Point

Can the US Afford to Get Rid of Coal? Can It Afford Not to?

This week's disaster in West Virginia dramatizes the human cost of coal mining underground. Surface mining's already the subject of new environmental regulations. What's the future of coal in a country with a boundless appetite for energy? Also, Supreme Court Justice Stevens will step down, and modern politics and the Civil War.

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By Warren Olney • Apr 9, 2010 • 51m Listen

This week's disaster in West Virginia dramatizes the human cost of coal mining underground. Surface mining's already the subject of new environmental regulations. What's the future of coal in a country with a boundless appetite for energy? Also, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he'll retire, and contemporary politics and the Civil War.

Banner image: A road sign warns traffic of an emergency ahead at the Upper Big Branch Mine on April 6, 2010 in Montcoal, West Virginia. Rescue efforts to save four miners that remain unaccounted for have been suspended due to poison gasses trapped underground after 25 miners were killed in an explosion at Massey Energy Company mine on April 5. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

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    Frances Anderton

    architecture critic and author

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    Darrell Satzman

    Producer

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    Karen Radziner

    Managing Producer, To the Point & Which Way LA?

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